Leonidas was taken aback.

The last time he handled the horse feed was about a week ago when this same caretaker couldn’t be bothered to do his job properly. Not wanting any trouble, Leonidas used an extra hour of his time filling the feed for all almost 200 horses.

Luckily, this had only happened twice. But, Leonidas had never thought it would be used as an excuse to push the blame onto himself.

At that point, Lady Eve and Sir Manfroi both turn their attention toward Leonidas, a light frown on their faces. Was this really what had happened?

It was impossible for them to tell what the truth was. After all, they didn’t frequent the stables. Manfroi had assumed that Leonidas wasn’t a caretaker, while Leonidas had personally told Eve that he wasn’t. Was that a lie to avoid fault?

The fat caretaker deeply bowed.

“My incompetence has greatly bothered both Lady and Sir! Leonidas is but a Clergyman, but his hope is to one day be a caretaker. In an act of kindness, I gave him a simple job to test his mettle, but I didn’t expect for this sort of accident to occur. Please punish him as you see fit!”

Leonidas’ furrowed brows had already relaxed by this point. Wasn’t he already used to such things happening to him? In fact, it was more a surprise than anything else that he had had two weeks of relative peace.

He had to admit that the caretaker was quite quick on his feet. His lie was actually not that bad at all.

Most Clergymen couldn’t become Apostles or Paladins like they hoped, even becoming a Knight was a near impossibility. As such, many would settle for cushy jobs under the wing of the Church. Being a caretaker was just one of these many potential jobs.

There wasn’t a great payday at the end of it, but it was definitely enough to live a comfortable life in this small town. This was a good goal to strive for…

But it wasn’t what Leonidas wanted.

Leonidas' gaze locked onto the caretaker who had raised from his bow, turning another rage-filled gaze toward Leonidas to keep up his act. But, when all he received were those placid, dead eyes, his heart couldn’t help but tremble slightly.

Sir Manfroi looked Leonidas up and down. Hearing the caretaker’s ‘explanation’, Manfroi ‘understood’. If things were like this, it would explain a lot.

“What is your name?” Manfroi finally asked.

“Ah! My name is Scabbers, Sir!”

“I meant him.” Manfroi replied coldly.

Scabbers took a step back and bowed in apology. Of course, he had known who Manfroi was referring to, but he thought this would be a good opportunity to introduce himself. Who knew, he might become the personal caretaker of the Bruthers family if he grasped this opportunity well.

As for what would happen to Leonidas? He had already stopped thinking about it.

“My name is Leonidas.” Leonidas replied.

“Leonidas?” Manfroi sneered. “What an overbearing name for a shit shoveler. I don’t want to see you in these stables ever again, do you understand me, ‘Leonidas’?”

Leonidas met Manfroi’s disdainful gaze. Indeed, having a powerful name was quite useless if you yourself were weak. The current Leonidas was nothing short of exactly that – weak.

“Did you not hear what the good Sir said?! Why aren’t you scramming yet?!” Scabbers practically barked.

Leonidas turned his gaze toward Lady Eve as though to see something. Seeing her hesitant expression, he made a choice.

“The horse didn’t eat feces. It’s in heat.”

Leonidas’ voice was met by silence at first, but it was Scabbers who exploded first.

To others Leonidas might have just been speaking nonsense. However, Scabbers had no choice but to take it as a slight on his authority. He had just said that everything was Leonidas’ fault, but now the brat was actually trying to refute it instead of just scramming.

No, what he was doing was worse than just refuting, he was even giving his own theory. This was an even greater slap to the face than the first instant would have been.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“You dare to spew nonsense here? Sir Manfroi was already kind enough to let you go with your life, yet you insist on walking down a path of no return?!”

Manfroi seemed too easily swayed by Scabbers’ words. At the end of the day, he was a boy even a few years younger than Leonidas. He had only wanted to help his aunt out, though he was obviously far too arrogant for his own good.

Knowing this, Leonidas didn’t allow Manfroi to reinforce Scabbers’ words.

At the end of the day, being ‘right’ would only get him so far. Sometimes, face to a noble was more important than anything else. To the right noble, the fact Leonidas was continuing to speak right now was already enough for a death sentence. But, to another noble, as long as Leonidas didn’t allow their words to go too far, their internal decisions and impulses could still be taken back.

This sort of easily swayed young noble was definitely in the latter camp.

Plus, the wooden emblem on Leonidas’ chest was a form of protection. In this way, even though he was technically in lower standing than the caretakers, his life was actually more secure.

The Clergymen of the Church couldn’t be casually killed without slighting the Goddess Yves. Ten silver was worth at least this much.

“The ingestion of feces would present as a stomach and digestive issue. But, I have yet to clear out the mare’s stable and it should be clear that there’s no discoloration, no change in size, and no runniness. If the issue was a problem of ingestion, why would there be no change in this regard?”

Leonidas hadn’t checked that stall today, but he had during the last few days. If there were any major changes, he would have noticed. Considering this odd behavior had been noted by him long ago, he always paid extra attention in that stall so that he didn’t get hurt.

Obviously, since there were no changes then, and the behavior was still about the same, there couldn’t be any major changes to the mare’s shit.

Hearing this, Manfroi frowned and cast a glance over the stall. He wasn’t an expert in these sorts of things, but judging from what he saw in other stalls, there wasn’t a large difference. Could it be that Leonidas wasn’t spewing nonsense?

“From what I can tell, the mare is quite young. It’s natural for it to be experiencing its first heat right about now, especially since it is the springtime. Its behavior is perfectly in line with this.

“The issue can be fixed by having a Healer work on the mare. But the procedure will likely be expensive and labor intensive. I’m sure Lady and Sir can decide on your own if it is worth it or not.”

As one of the many potential jobs one could transition into after being a Clergyman, it wasn’t a surprise that the library had some books on rearing horses. The topic of heat and mares was obviously one of the covered topics.

Scabbers’ face flickered several times after hearing Leonidas’ words. They were too reasonable, he couldn’t find a simple way to refute them. If things kept going like this, he would be the one to suffer.

‘Calm down, you haven’t told a lie. Things should be fine. This little brat did indeed feed the horses. As long as they don’t read any mal-intent in my actions, I should be able to skate by even if I’m proven wrong.’

Still, Scabbers was inwardly grinding his teeth. This little bastard actually dared to embarrass him like this just because he read a few books?

Manfroi’s brow furrowed. “Are you certain?”

“I am not.” Leonidas shook his head. “But, what I can be certain of is the fact the mare doesn’t have any stomach issues. As for whether it is heat or not, Lady and Sir only have to wait a few more days. Heat usually comes and goes in cycles. If the mare starts displaying normal behavior in a couple days, then reverts back to this, there’s a more than 90% likelihood that I am correct.”

Lady Eve gave Leonidas a deep look.

The moment he began to speak, she was already about convinced that he was correct.

The old horse Lady Eve was forced to retire had already been spayed by her family before giving it to her as a gift and had followed her around for two decades. As such, she never dealt with heat before and it wasn’t at the forefront of her mind, so she had become irrationally worried.

Now, though, she was a woman who lived on her own and bought this horse with her own funds. She hadn’t considered getting the mare spayed before this very moment, so it had led to this situation.

Manfroi’s eyes narrowed as he looked back toward Scabbers who had his head lowered, his forehead beading with cold sweat.

“It seems that I have made a mistake, esteemed Sir and Lady. Please punish me!”

If there was anything Scabbers was, it was clever. He didn’t bother to defend himself and straightforwardly admitted his wrongs. As for seeking his own justice for this matter, the patient always won.

He wasn’t enraged that Leonidas had corrected him, that was nothing more than an act. What he was enraged about was the fact this definitely cut off his path to becoming a personal caretaker for the Bruthers family.

“Leonidas, right?” Lady Eve suddenly spoke, her gentle voice greatly contrasting the heavy male air of the stable.

“Yes.” Leonidas replied straightforwardly.

“I will commission a Healer to complete the necessary procedure, but I cannot be here every day to check on the little one. Would you be willing to do this for me?”

Leonidas’ brows raised slightly, even he was not expecting this.

“It would be my honor.” He replied just as straightforwardly.

Lady Eve smiled. “Here is 20 silvers in advance for a month of work, I trust that this is enough?”

Leonidas was left speechless. Were the dividing lines of the world truly so exaggerated?

To Lady Eve, these 20 silvers were probably worthless. But, she likely had no idea that these 20 silvers represented a third of his mother’s lifetime of work and two extra months of his safety.

“Thank you for the opportunity.” Leonidas said somewhat solemnly, accepting Lady Eve’s pouch.

He didn’t waste time refusing her. This was money he most definitely needed.

To Leonidas, hiding away in the Church was not his forever goal. It was nothing more than step one. If he wanted to take a second step, these 20 silvers would be greatly helpful.

Scabbers watched with partially red eyes as Leonidas accepted these funds, but he didn’t say a word, forcing a smile from start to finish.

As for Manfroi, as long as his aunt was happy, he was happy. He had already forgotten about the rude words he had spoken to Leonidas.